Jake and Dada

Sometimes for fun, I can entertain Jake with the built in camera on my Mac laptop computer. With the Photo Booth program, he can see on the screen what the camera sees, and he enjoys watching things on the screen. I can usually get him to smile this way, since he doesn't really think of it as a camera. So I snapped some pictures the other night of him and I. We had been having a good old time, playing some Backyardigans games on the Nick Jr. website. Actually, I played the game, and he sat there enthralled, thinking it was an actual episode, and wanted another when the game was over. Leigh Ann also found a Blue's Clues game and played it with him the next night. It still amazes me how utterly he loves those shows, Blue's Clues especially. He constantly walks around the living room with his official notebook, looking for clues, then goes and sits in his thinking chair.
We are all doing well. I was supposed to take a trip down to Galveston, Texas, over a week ago for a conference, and from there go to Lafayette, Louisiana, for an experiment. But the experiment got canceled at the last minute, and I came home unexpectedly. The experiment has been re-scheduled for this coming Tuesday, the 12th, so I am heading back down that Monday. I know, you are all wondering what there is to do in Lafayette. Keep wondering. As far as I know, there is nothing to do, other than go down for my experiment. It is close to Avery Island, though, where Tabasco sauce is made.
Leigh Ann's parents were able to come up and stay with her and Jacob while I was gone, which was a big help for Leigh Ann.

I thought I would also show you Jacob's Santa pictures from last year. If you go back and look at those from last year, you will see that Jacob was definitely less excited about seeing Santa this year than he was last year.

End of the year Wrap-up

Alright, so I know I haven't posted in a while, and I apologize. Everything always seems to get turned on its head around the holidays, and we seem to just now be getting back into the normal rhythm.
In November my family came out for Thanksgiving. David flew here from Korea, Richard from Utah, and Mom and Clyde from California. We had a great Thanksgiving meal in our little home. We were surprised that our first Thanksgiving turkey went so well. We took David to see the Kirtland temple, because he arrived a full day before everybody else, and the others had already seen it. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we all went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, which was very impressive. Jacob did amazingly well!
This year for Christmas we decided Jacob was big enough to put the regular big tree up. The Sunday before Christmas, Leigh Ann snapped a picture of Jacob and I, already for church.
One of Jacob's new Christmas gifts was a new Crayola Color Wonder coloring book, with the "Cars" theme. Everybody who know Jacob that, at least at the time, he had two obsessions - Cars and Blue's Clues.
And to follow up, for Christmas, we found Jacob an inflatable Blue's Clues Thinking Chair. He had a lot of fun with it down in Chattanooga with Leigh Ann's parents (where we spent Christmas). Unfortunately, the chair could not withstand the requirements put upon it, and seems to have sprung a leak. I am trying to identify the leak and seal it up, because he loved the chair, as you can see in this picture and in the video below. All in all, it was a very busy holiday season, but we had a lot of fun visiting with family, and while we were down in Chattanooga, we took the opportunity to meet up with some of our Birmingham friends - Andy and Rheanna Stevens and Holly Woods - down in Gadsden at the Cracker Barrel. Jacob continues to amaze us with how well he handles the long drive to and from Tennessee.




With the new year comes new challenges. The latest, and biggest, is our quest to potty train Jacob. So far it is going slowly, as he is not that keen on the idea of having to go to the toilet to do his business, rather than just using a simple diaper. At the very least, he seems to be learning bladder control, as he will hold it in as long as he has underwear on, and then let it go the second we put him in his trainer pull-ups for nap time and at night for bed.
We hope you all have a great new year, and we'll continue to post the news and progress of our young family.

Love,
Mike, Leigh Ann, and Jacob

Aaah, young love!

I just took this one because I was experimenting with the B&W function on our digital camera, and you don't have to deal with red eye!
So I think I have mentioned before that Jacob has a girlfriend. Her name is Abby. They hang out together a couple of times a week, on average, when Abby comes to our house on Monday mornings and Jacob goes to her house on Friday afternoons. Jacob usually does not like other kids his age. He doesn't like them near him, and he certainly doesn't like them near his toys. But Abby is the exception. So far, she is the only other child that Jacob allows near him. Not only near him, they will give each other hugs and kisses. Here, you can see that Jacob is actually sharing cookies with her (unheard of). He also calls her by name. Just to give you some perspective, the only other names he knows are Mama, Dada, Pooh, Blue, Pablo, and Elmo (thanks to Abby). They are cute together. To give you some idea of the contrast, you can see there that Abby is very daintily holding her cookie with just her thumb and index finger, while Jacob has his whole hand clamped on his while cramming it into his mouth. In this picture, they are watching Fish Movie (aka Finding Nemo) together.

Jake's second halloween

So this was Jacob's third Halloween, and we didn't do anything for the first 2. So this year we thought we should do something. We were at Michael's one night getting things for making our Thanksgiving wreath (we decided last Christmas that we could make a Christmas wreath that we actually liked for cheaper than buying one that we only sort of liked, and thought we could do the same for Thanksgiving), and I put this hat on Jacob, and he wouldn't take it off. So we bought him a matching sword, and he was going around saying "Arrrrgggggh!" whenever I asked him what a pirate says. We took him to our church chili cook-off/trunk-or-treat on Saturday, and it didn't go so well. We had bought him his pumpkin for holding candy that day, and he immediately decided that it was the perfect container for his various cars he loves to play with. In fact, it was so perfect, he would not allow anything else in there. When we tried to put candy in it, he screamed. In addition, when we would try to get him to go up to a car to get candy (even when he knew the person), he screamed and tried to run off. So it didn't go as smoothly as planned.
Jacob got a "Cars" fork and spoon for his birthday, and he has been learning to use the fork (he already pretty much has the hang of a spoon). Sometimes it goes well, sometimes not. He hasn't learned yet to poke the fork into things. Lots of times he'll just pick the food up and place it on the fork. Oh well, he's learning.
Jake continues to grow and be more and more of a handful. He is every bit a 2-year old. He screams a lot more. He has recently decided he does not want to take naps at all, so he sits in his crib for 2 hours and talks to his stuffed animals (you can tell when he is talking with cookie monster because he starts growling, which he learned from me and my poor cookie monster imitation). Last night he discovered that he can pull his foot up to his nose and mouth. I'm sure his mother will love to see that!
We just finished painting our guest room. We had been wanting to do it for a while. Leigh Ann had to work several Saturdays last month, so I decided I would make myself useful while she was at work. Unfortunately, with a 2-year old, this meant that I could only work when Jacob was in his room, so that meant 2 hours during nap time and then late at night after he went to bed. I got almost all of it done over 2 Saturdays, and then last Saturday Leigh Ann came in and helped me with the rest, which included the border with the ceiling and along the base boards, as well as fixing some of my mistakes and touching up. We are happy with the results. We have now painted Jacob's room, the guest bathroom, the downstairs half bathroom, and the kitchen. The only other room we are considering painting is our bedroom, but we aren't quite ready to tackle that, and haven't even started thinking of colors.

0 . . . 1 . . . 2

Thought it might be nice to see the evolution of Jacob. Here are pictures at birth, his first birthday, and his second birthday. He has certainly changed a lot.

2 Years Old

Well, the little munchkin is now 2 years old. We had his birthday party on Saturday, and it went great. We had to do all of the decorations while he was down for his nap, so when he got up and saw everything, he started walking around in amazement, then started running around, excited. He loved seeing "coos" everywhere. The paw print cookies were a big success, and he loved the Blue that was stuck in the middle of his cake. He would not sit still for any pictures except when he was eating his cake (of which he liked the frosting the most!).
He loved all the gifts he received, as we can attest to, since they are strewn all over the living room floor. In particular, he loved the new cars and the car rug to drive them on, as well as the little train track he received (thanks Bevans), and is also now enjoying eating with the Cars spoon and fork that his Grandma and Grandpa Cate bought him.
Jacob's eating habits have changed a bit. The biggest change is that he is very picky, and other than french fries, you never know what he will and will not like. One new habit, though, is his hating having food on his hands. We attribute this to hanging out with Abby Bevan, who hates having dirty hands. So anyways, with his being new to using utensils, you can imagine what this is like. He will try to pick something up with his new fork, only to have it fall off. So he will then pick the food up, put it on the fork to eat it, and then cry out until you wipe off his now dirty hand. This can continue for the whole meal (as it did last night). We go through several paper towels at each meal, now.

A boy and his dog

Jacob continues to be fascinated with Blue. Every time he sees a paw print, he yells out "a coo, a coo." And he calls the show "Coos coos." I don't know why, because he can say "Blue." Just one of those things.
Well, this Saturday Jacob turns 2. Hard to believe that he is already 2 years old. Anybody who sees him, though, swears he is older. He is just such a big kid. Sometimes I think we expect more of him because he does look so much bigger than his age. Oh well.
We are throwing a "Blue's Clues" themed party for him this Saturday. We found cake toppers so he can have a Blue cake (not as easy as you might think). Everything is going to be blue. Somebody thought we should get a pinata shaped like Blue, but we thought Jacob might not take too well to people beating his absolute favorite character with a stick.
The weather is finally starting to change here, and it looks like Summer is on its way out. We have broken out the long pants for Jacob once again. That was no problem. The problem is that he has become quite fond of wearing sandals, and when we tried the other day to put socks and regular shoes on his feet, he threw a fit.
Jacob has definitely become more social. Originally we couldn't get him to stay in nursery, and were wondering if all our hopes of having a few peaceful hours at church would be dashed. But now he can't get in there fast enough. As soon as the closing prayer is over in Sacrament meeting and I stand up, Jacob grabs my hand and leads me to the Nursery room. He also absolutely loves the children's playroom at the YMCA where he gets to play while Leigh Ann and I work out. All you have to do is say, "Jacob, do you want to go to the gym?" and he is over at the door in a flash, ready to go.
It is amazing how many demands on your time you have as you get older. Leigh Ann and I have to plan certain activities, like shopping for Christmas gifts, over a month in advance, as Saturdays seem to get eaten up. If you don't carefully plan to get some time together, it is amazing how difficult it can be (and I'm sure Leigh Ann can attest to how bad I am more often than not at planning such time).